Rabbit's Valentine Surprise
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Tigger's in Rabbit's garden again.  Slash.


Title: "Rabbit's Valentine Surprise"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Dedicated To: My wonderous, amazing, always inspirational, and beloved husband Jack - Happy Valentine's Day, my heart! I love you, my everything!  
>Rating: PG-13<br>Summary: Tigger's in Rabbit's garden again.  
>Warnings: Slash, Established Relationship<br>Word Count: 1,360  
>Date Written: 13 February, 2012<br>Disclaimer: Rabbit, Tigger, all other characters mentioned within, and Winnie the Pooh are ﾩ & TM A. A. Milne and Disney, not the author. Everything else is ﾩ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Rabbit was washing dishes and looking out the single window in his little kitchen onto the fine day, which looked far more like Spring than the Winter the One Hundred Acre Woods should be experiencing, when sudden movement caught his eye. His long ears and white, fluffy tail wriggled with annoyance. Something was in his garden, bothering his carrots, and from the flash of black and orange that he'd seen, he was willing to beat the intruder was once again his beloved Tigger!

His fur bristling, Rabbit rinsed the bowl he held, put it in the drainer, wiped his furry hands off on a nearby orange towel, and stomped outside. He allowed his large feet to fall heavily upon his wood floors, and the sound echoed throughout his home, out his open door, and down into his garden. The warning still did not even so much as slow Tigger, who was bouncing all over his carrot patch. Rabbit fumed, his long ears growing stiff with his anger and pointing sideways out from his head. "TIGGER!" he bellowed, but the cat just kept bouncing.

Rabbit's eyes followed Tigger's bounces as he sprang ever higher toward the sun. His head bobbed up and down with every jump he made. He continued yelling at him as he hopped closer to him, but still Tigger ignored him and kept bouncing. Rabbit was beginning to grow dizzy from watching him when Tigger bounded straight over the bunny's head. His ears laid back against his head, and Rabbit shouted Tigger's name at the top of his voice.

Rabbit's carrots had been flying out of the dirt from the impact of Tigger's jumps, and another flew out so quickly that it almost hit Rabbit square in his furry face when Tigger landed once more. Rabbit bounded to the side, narrowly avoiding the flying carrot, and screamed Tigger's name yet again. Finally, the cat turned to look at him. "What is it, bunny boy?" he asked, his paws up in the air as though he'd done no harm.

"What . . . " Rabbit's pink nose and whiskers twitched. " . . . is . . . " His yellow fur bristled and stood visibly on end. " . . . IT?" he squeaked in rage, his eyes flashing and tail shaking furiously. "TIGGER, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" he screamed. "WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS DESTROY MY HARD WORK? DON'T YOU RESPECT ME AT ALL? WHY CAN'T YOU LEAVE MY GARDEN ALONE?"

Tigger blinked in obvious surprise. His joyous grin fell into a frown. His head and tail both sagged. Rabbit's anger swiftly deflated his happy spirit, and as his whiskers drooped and he peered up at Rabbit from underneath his thick, bushy eyebrows, he almost looked like he was going to cry. "I'm sorry," he mewed. "I thought you'd be surprised."

"Surprised? SURPRISED? I guess I should be surprised," Rabbit thundered, throwing his arms up in the air, "BUT I SUPPOSE YOU'VE JUST DESTROYED SO MUCH OF MY HARD WORK OVER THE YEARS THAT IT NO LONGER COMES TO ME AS A SURPRISE THAT YOU'RE DESTROYING MY GARDEN YET AGAIN!"

Tigger sniffed. His long, striped tail poked his right paw, and he grasped it in both paws and turned it slowly. A tear rolled down his furry cheek and splashed to the upturned dirt below him.

Rabbit glowered at him, but slowly, as he watched Tigger battling tears, his anger started to ease. He had never seen Tigger cry before, and it wasn't like his love to wreck havoc and then cry about it when he was caught red pawed. "Tigger, what on Earth is going on with you today?" he asked, his voice softer and his ears, nose, tail, and whiskers twitching.

"I thought you'd be happy," Tigger murmured.

Rabbit's bushy brows rose. "Happy that you're destroying my garden?"

"No," Tigger replied quietly, his voice full of sadness. "Happy that I was helping."

"Helping? Helping?" Rabbit repeated again, his voice growing into a higher pitch every time he spoke the word. "Helping? HELPING?" He turned around in a circle, waving at the carrots that Tigger had torn from their roots. "You call this helping?"

There were carrots everywhere, but then, slowly, as Rabbit turned around, surveying the latest destruction his sweetheart had caused, he began to see a shape growing from the carrots. He turned three more circles, surveying the shape in doubt, before finally, and slowly, raising his eyes back to Tigger's agonized face. "You uprooted them," he spoke gradually, still not quite believing what he had seen, "into a heart." Somehow, Tigger had managed to bounce his carrots in such a way that when they had flown up and through the air and came back down to the ground, they had lined themselves up into a heart in the middle of which Rabbit now stood.

Tigger nodded slowly. He twisted and softly squeezed his own tail. "Uh uh," he admitted, his furry, striped head bobbing in agreement. "A heart for you. I know you'd rather have carrots than chocolates any day of the year, Rabbit." The couple was quiet for a little while longer before Tigger hesitantly added, "Happy Valentine's Day, Rabbit."

His carrots were destroyed. They had been pulled up from their roots far too early. He'd have to salvage what he could, throw away what he couldn't save, and replant the rest. Yet, as Rabbit gazed at Tigger over the edge of the heart-shaped ring of destroyed carrots, he found himself unable to be angry with his love. He had, after all, tried so hard to give him a Valentine's Day present that he would like, and Rabbit had repaid his love's care and imagination with anger.

"Oh, Tigger," he cried, giving a great, big sigh, "I'm sorry." He hopped toward him.

"You are?" Tigger asked in surprise, sniffling and wringing his tail again.

Rabbit bounded over the distance that remained between them and wrapped his furry arms around his love. "Yes, darling," he assured him, his fluffy tail quivering, "I am!" He hugged him. "Thank you for trying to give me the best Valentine's Day present ever! I'm sorry I was so mad."

"I guess . . . " Tigger wrung his tail again. "I guess I do kind of tend to make a lot of messes in your garden."

Rabbit bristled at the mere memory of the countless times Tigger had completely destroyed his garden. "Your heart is in the right place," he stated aloud, as much a reminder to himself not to get riled again as reassurance for Tigger. "Just try to stay out of it for the rest of the year, okay?" he pleaded. "If you do, I won't have to get angry with you."

"I'll try," Tigger said, sniffling and wringing his tail. His striped tail jumped in his paws, however, and his furry behind wriggled with a will of its own. "But I can't promise. Your garden's just so tempting!" he tried to explain to his love. "It wants to be bounced!"

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does." Tigger nodded. "Sometimes."

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does."

"No - " Rabbit broke off his own furious declaration as he realized that they were beginning to argue again. He changed tactics swiftly. He gently withdrew Tigger's tail from his squeezing paws and brushed it in his own furry hands. "Besides," he spoke, making sure to stroke Tigger with the way his fur ran and gazing up into his eyes, his own dark orbs glittering with mischief, "I know something we'd all much more prefer you to bounce." He grinned widely. "It's a lot more fun, too."

Tigger beamed down at him. "What's that?"

Rabbit leaned up and brushed his nose against Tigger's. He kissed him softly, then whispered against his smiling, furry lips, "Me."

Tigger hollered with such enthusiasm that the blow of his words sent Rabbit's long ears flying back behind his head. "Hot diggity cat, you're right! Bouncing you's always the most fun, and bouncing Rabbits is what Tiggers do best!" He proceeded to bounce him right then and there for the rest of the day, kissing him passionately and leaping wildly with the bunny he loved.

**The End**


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